Haruka Kurebayashi in London
Haruka Kurebayashi (or Kure-chan) is a Japanese kawaii model and icon of Harajuku and decora style. Dreamy Bows brought her to the UK as a special guest on their booth at Hyper Japan. After the show, they hosted a special party for her at Artbox in Covent Garden – aka the Cutest Night Ever! Watch the video for my vlog of the event, and an extra special interview with Kure-chan.
Haruka Kurebayashi
If you’re into Japanese fashion, you might recognise Kure-Chan from Kera magazine, and she also models for Listen Flavor. She’s just so cute and colourful, and she was really lovely to meet in real life. How can one person be so cute?? I just love her colourful style. Decora’s my favourite type of Japanese fashion; it’s so colourful, overloaded with cute accessories.
Party at Artbox
The party was on a very warm summer evening at Artbox, a cute shop in Covent Garden. From the queue outside I could tell I was in the right place, because was dressed up very colourful – we certainly got some stares from people walking by!
There were stations with cute activities you can see in the video, with a background of j-pop music and a yummy buffet of Japanese snacks. Kure-Chan was there the whole time, so everyone had a chance to take lots of photos, have a chat and get their cheki. There was also time to check out all the cute things in the shop, along with the collaboration items and a collection of Japanese fashion, including Kure-Chan’s own designs and a range from 6% Dokidoki. And the cake was just as delicious as it was colourful!
It was a lovely atmosphere and a perfect place to take lots of cute photos. You could really tell how much everyone enjoyed it, and how excited everyone was to meet their idol Kure-Chan.
Interview with Kurebayashi
I wasn’t sure how much english she could speak, so I kept the questions fairly simple and wrote them all out on cards. I even translated them all into Japanese, so in the worst case I could point at them if she didn’t understand me at all! As it turned out, her english was very good and I didn’t need them.
At the start I mentioned she could answer in english if she could, or answer in Japanese and I’d translate it later if I didn’t understand. I know some Japanese, enough to get by in basic situations, but there were a couple of answers where I’m just smiling and nodding in the video! I managed to work it out afterwards, and big thank you to Cakes with Faces follower @wim_v12e on Twitter who helped me out with the trickier parts.
I asked her all the most difficult (and important) questions, like: what are the best Japanese sweets??
Dreamy Bows
Thank you to Dreamy Bows for arranging the interview, and for bringing Haruka Kurebayashi to London. Their online shop has lots of cute, pastel fashion and they’re now the official UK stockist for Harajuku brand 6% Dokidoki. You can see more of their booth in my video from Hyper Japan. They also stock the collaboration items in the video – you can get them from www.dreamybows.com and from Artbox in Covent Garden.
Videos about Japan
If you’re interested in Japan, take a look at my YouTube channel for more vlogs from Tokyo and advice for planning your trip! Hit the button to subscribe to catch my videos coming up:
My Designs
And if you like cute and colourful fashion, take a look at my designs! Harajuku and kawaii style is a huge inspiration for me; I design clothing and gifts with colourful designs to make you smile and brighten up every day. I may be in the UK but Harajuku is where my heart is. Take a look…
